Saima Kalsoom
Quaid-i-Azam University
Islamabad
Pakistan
Title: In silico designing and synthesis of immunomodulating agents as IL-2 inhibitors
Biography
Biography: Saima Kalsoom
Abstract
The function of the immune system depends in a large part on interleukins. Interleukin are a group of cytokines that were first seen to be expressed by white blood cells. The majority of interleukins are synthesized by helper CD4 T lymphocytes, as well as through monocytes, macrophages, and endothelial cells. They promote the development and differentiation of T and B lymphocytes, and hematopoietic cells .The rare deficiencies in the number of interleukins cause autoimmune diseases or immune deficiency. Hence, IL-2 holdsconsiderable promise as a therapeutic target for the treatment of autoimmune disorders. Forthe development of new immunomodulators, current therapies target IL-2 production or the IL-2signaling pathway. A small molecule inhibitor of the IL-2/IL-2Rα interaction could offer a significant improvement in immunosuppressive therapy. The present study describes the usefulness of in silico tools in identification of new IL-2 inhibitors. The identification of novel IL-2 was carried out by the steps followed both in dry and wet labs in different round of experiments. Structure based pharmacophore was designed for IL-2 inhibitors. Pharmacophore based viertual screening was performed by using ZINC and MOE databases. Hits compounds were further filtered by performing molecular docking studies. Fifty compounds were identified as hits for IL-2 inhibition. All these compounds were synthesized in wet lab. All these synthesized compounds were submitted for IL-2 inhibition assay. Results were very promising as all compounds were found to be active as IL-2 inhibitors.